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Fródi (Old Norse Fróđi corresponding to Old English Froda) is the name of a number of legendary Danish kings in various texts including Beowulf, Snorri Sturluson's Edda and his Ynglinga saga, Saxo Grammaticus' Gesta Danorum, and the Grottisöng.
- The Fródi of the Grottisöng is said to be the son of Fridleif son of Skjöld in whose beer king Fjölnir drowned (according to Ynglinga saga). Snorri Sturluson here and in the Skáldskaparmál make this Fródi the contemporary of emperor Augustus and comments on the peacefulness of his reign, suggesting a relationship to the birth of Christ. Though Icelandic sources make this Fródi a very early Danish king, in Gesta Danorum (Book 5), Saxo puts him late in his series of rulers, though including the chronological equation with Augustus and mentioning the birth of Christ.
- The Fródi who, according to Ynglinga saga and Gesta Danorum, was the father of Halfdan. He would have lived in the 5th or 6th century. He appears to be the same king who later in the Ynglinga saga aided the Swedish king Egil (Ongentheow) in defeating the thrall Tunni. Because of this, Egil and his son Ottar (Ohthere) became tributaries to the Danish king.
Preceded by: Dan Mikilláti | Legendary Danish kings | Succeeded by: Halfdan |
- Fródi the father of Ingjald who in Beowulf is Froda the father of Ingeld and king of the Heathobards. The existence of the Heathobards has been forgotten in Norse texts and this Fródi there sometimes appears as the brother of Halfdan with the long hositily between Heathobards and Danes becoming a family feud between Halfdan and his brother Fródi in which Fródi kills his brother Halfdan and is himself slain by Halfdan's sons Helgi (Halga) and Hroar (Hrothgar). (In the Latin summary to the lost Skjöldunga saga the names Fródi and Ingjald are interchanged). Saxo Grammaticus (Book 6) makes this Fródi instead to be a very late legendary king, the son of Fridleif son of Saxo's late peaceful Fródi. Saxo knows some of th story of this feud but nothing of any relationship to Halfdan. Instead Saxo relates how this Fródi was slain by Saxons and how, after a marriage alliance between his son Ingel and a Saxon princess to heal the feud, Ingel opened it again under urging of an old warrior, just as the hero Beowulf prophecies of Ingjald in the poem Beowulf.
The name Fródi appears Latinized as Frothi or Frodo. Alternative Anglicizations are Frode, Fróthi, and Frodhi. Danish is Frode.sv:Frode da:Kong_Frode